How to List Your Side Hustle on a Resume [With Examples]

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With many people adopting side hustles to supplement their income amid financial pressures or because they want to work more flexibly, it’s you must know how to present these jobs on your resume effectively. 

But how do you effectively present a second job or multiple overlapping jobs on your resume? This guide offers essential insights on whether to disclose your side hustle, how to articulate it to enhance your career prospects, and detailed steps for listing it professionally.

In this article, we’ll address all the key areas, including:

• Resume enhancement: Learn how to leverage your side hustle to demonstrate valuable skills and initiative.
• Practical examples: Gain clarity with concrete examples of how to format and describe your side gig on your resume. 
• Disclosing side jobs: Understand when and how to mention your second job to potential employers.

Read on to master the art of integrating your side hustle into your resume strategically. Are you in a rush to add your side hustle to your resume? With our user-friendly resume builder and templates, you can easily slot in a second job in minutes.

What Counts as a Side Hustle or Gig Work?

Gig work, which often encompasses flexible, temporary, or ad hoc tasks, has become a crucial part of this economic landscape. 

According to a 2023 World Bank report, the number of online gig workers across the globe could be as many as 435 million, with Reuters reporting that there could be up to 13 million in the US*.

Examples of gig work include: 

• Writing articles for various clients found through platforms like Upwork
• Providing voice-over services or creating video content via online marketplaces like Fiverr
• Delivering food in the evenings or on weekends with intermediary takeaway delivery companies
• Pet-sitting or house-sitting via community platforms

These opportunities allow individuals to tailor their work to fit their personal schedules and needs, providing essential income during challenging times. 

Many Americans are going through a cost-of-living crisis or want to shake up how they work and add flexibility with more remote work. Those considered “Gen Z” sometimes must resort to working a second job to pay their bills and become part of the gig economy. Others simply prefer this way of working. 

In 2022, around 48% of Gen Z Americans had side hustles to help them make ends meet, because they preferred this flexible work, or they planned to launch their own business.

One thing is clear: side hustles are becoming a permanent fixture in our economic fabric, and it’s useful to know how to list this work on your resume.

Should I Put My Second Job on My Resume?

Your resume is a marketing document. Its sole purpose is to highlight your skills, experiences, and accomplishments that align with the job you’re targeting. 

If your second job enhances your candidacy, it deserves a spot on your resume. It can indicate initiative, entrepreneurship, and a broader skill set.

On the flip side, if your second job is largely unrelated to your primary career focus and doesn’t offer transferable skills, it may end up cluttering your resume.

Consider if your side hustle does the following:

• Helps show off your relevant skills
• Allows you to list transferable skills
• Demonstrates your experience in the job sector
• Allows you to demonstrate skills that can help you find your first full-time remote job
• Sets you apart from other applicants

If your current or previous side hustle helps you in those ways then strongly consider adding it to your resume, otherwise make sure you leave it off to save space for more relevant information.

How To Add a Side Hustle to Your Resume

Including a previous or current side hustle on your resume requires careful consideration, articulation, and presentation. 

After all, it’s not just about stating the fact that you have a side job; it’s about positioning that experience in a way that complements your career trajectory, demonstrates professional growth, and illustrates your multifaceted skill set. 

Here are the steps to help you achieve this:

1. Choose the right section: Depending on the nature of your side hustle, you can either include it in your “Professional Experience” section or create a separate section like “Additional Experience,” or  “Freelance Work” if you were not working on a contract but the work is substantial enough to be highlighted. 
2. Craft a clear, concise description: Write a brief description of your side hustle. This should cover your roles, responsibilities, and significant achievements. Be sure to include action verbs and quantifiable achievements, just as you would with a regular job description.
3. Highlight transferable skills: Make sure to emphasize any transferable skills from these roles that are related to the job you’re applying for.

By taking these steps you can showcase the qualities that you can bring to the position you want to apply to and make your resume further stand out from fellow candidates’ applications.

Side Hustle on a Resume: Examples

In most cases, your second job will go in the experience section of your resume. 

As you’re going to present your side hustle as experience, you must understand how to put gig work on your resume.

To do so, you need to add any side hustle with the appropriate structure and details. That means clearly stating the following:

• Position
• Company
• Years worked
• Your duties
• Achievements with quantifiable data

• 💡 Our expert’s advice

  

  You don’t need to mention that it’s a part-time job as it may get confusing for the prospective employer. You can always discuss it during the interview.

In the following example, you can see just how to add side hustle to your resume: 

Example

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Additional Experience

Social Media Manager

ABC Apparel | City, State

March 2022 – Present

• Developed and implemented a comprehensive social media strategy that increased follower count by 40% across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter within six months.
• Conducted weekly analysis of social media metrics and adjusted strategy accordingly, leading to a consistent month-over-month growth of 10% in organic reach.
• Collaborated with the design team to create visually compelling graphics, which contributed to a 35% increase in post shares.
• Managed and responded to customer inquiries and comments, improving the brand’s response rate by 50%.

You can use AI tools like ChaptGPT within a resume builder to help you write your job descriptions such as the above example. Just make sure you review and edit the suggestions that it provdes you.

The following is another example of how to list gig work on your resume. This time the side gig is more ad hoc and harder to quantify. Make sure you keep a record of your achievements and any relevant metrics.

Example

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Additional Experience

Video Content Creator | Fiverr

January 2020 – Present

• Crafted and delivered over 200 engaging videos across various niches including technology, health, and finance, consistently meeting the client’s content standards and deadlines.
• Implemented video SEO best practices that resulted in a 30% increase in organic search traffic over six months.
• Maintained a 98% client satisfaction rate through high-quality production and reliable communication, leading to repeat contracts and referrals.
• Analyzed user engagement data and refined content strategies for a health and wellness website, increasing average session duration by 20% and views by 25%.

How Can I List Overlapping Jobs or Gig Work on a Resume?

You might wonder which job to give priority to if you worked two jobs at the same time.

Remember, it’s best practice to use the reverse chronological format when listing your work experience, no matter the kind of job you are describing.

If you worked multiple jobs at the same time, list the most relevant one first.

You Can List Your Side Hustle as a Freelance Position

If you weren’t given a contract and work self-employed as your side hustle, list your job as a freelance position. 

This is also the case if some ad hoc, infrequent gig work evolves into a role where you receive more regular work in larger quantities.

Here is an example of how a freelance writer could mention their side hustle on a resume

Example

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Additional Experience

Freelance Writer, UpWork

Self-Employed

January 2022 – Present

• Provide a wide range of writing services to various clients, including blog posts, articles, social media content, and website copy.
• Consistently meet deadlines and maintain high-quality standards, resulting in a 95% client retention rate.
• Collaborated with clients across industries like tech, healthcare, finance, and hospitality to develop targeted content that resonates with their audience.
• Implemented SEO strategies in content creation, increasing web traffic for clients by an average of 30%.

Do You Have to Disclose a Second Job?

Even if the data indicates that it’s becoming the new norm for younger Americans to have a second job, are you obligated to tell your potential new boss that you have a side hustle? 

No, there is no hard-and-fast rule about including side gigs on your resume or informing your current or future boss that you have a side hustle. 

This decision largely depends on your career goals, the nature of your primary and secondary jobs, and the potential employer’s requirements.

You should review the company website to gauge the culture before deciding to include your side job on their resume. The decision also depends on the nature of the side job. If it helps develop skills related to the main job, it might be beneficial to include.

Key Points

Writing your side hustle on a resume may not always be simple to do, as you want to ensure there will be no conflict of interest with a new job. 

However, a relevant second job can add valuable information to your resume, such as additional skills and experience. 

Simply remember to do the following when including any second jobs:

• Make sure you include them in the appropriate section
• Highlight your transferable skills
• Ensure you are not violating any potential company policies

By using these tips and resume writing tools you won’t have much trouble impressing a hiring manager with what you’ve learned from your side hustle.

*Data taken from US jobs data may be miscounting millions of ‘gig’ workers, research suggests, Reuters, November 17, 2023.

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